CDC sounds alarm: 2 dead in US from disease never seen outside tropics

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sounding the alarm on a rare illness that was previously only seen in tropical climates, particularly South Asia and northern Australia.

Now, two people are dead and two recovered after being infected with melioidosis — a disease that had never before been detected on contiguous US soil. Melioidosis has now been seen in Georgia, Kansas, Texas and Minnesota, LiveScience reported. The only other known cases of melioidosis in the US were on the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. None of the four patients claimed to have traveled outside of the country prior to becoming sick between March and July of this year.